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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Super Easy Caramel Ice-Cream (no ice-cream maker required)

I have a confession to make. I think I am becoming a Donna Hay addict. It started with her Chocolate Essentials cookbook - several years ago, browsing a bookstore, I was enthralled by the combination of luscious food styling and, well, chocolate. I still love this book - so much that I have given it as a gift. I think the next purchase was Seasons. It was on sale just before we moved to Wellington, and the carefree picnics in the summer section were too alluring to resist. Over the winter, when Milly from Gusty Gourmet tweeted about a wonderful cauliflower soup she'd just made I was convinced to buy the magazine - and now can't pass it by on the racks. And when I was watching Australian Masterchef yesterday and she started talking about "ultimate lickability" I pretty much swooned.

She is a magnificent food stylist - her photos do make you (well, me) want to lick the page - but puts emphasis on taste and (my favourite part) making things as easy as possible. Plenty of her recipes are complicated, multi-step affairs - but never more so than necessary - and they're interspersed with quicker, simpler ideas. In the most recent issue she has some quick ice-cream recipe (which technically aren't super quick as they still need to freeze) and though it's pretty hard to replicate the texture of true ice-cream without making a custard, sometimes something a little different is good.

This particular recipe is about as simple as they come - two ingredients (surely you couldn't have a recipe without at least two ingredients!), and it doesn't even require an ice-cream maker. It took me all of five minutes to put together, and the only potential screw-up I can imagine is possible would be if you beat the cream for a bit too long and made butter instead. And if you're really worried about that you could buy thickened cream (which is actually what the recipe in the mag called for).

I can barely talk about making it - I whipped the cream to be reasonably firm, but still smooth, then mixed the caramel through. I decided to use our ice-cream maker to start the chilling process, and it was ultra creamy and getting thick by the time I put it in the freezer, but it was far from being ice-cream. The ice-cream maker step is unnecessary, though - just pop the mixture straight in the freezer (Donna says in a metal container; I always use old ice-cream containers. It's only about a litre so the container doesn't need to be huge).

We froze it overnight, though I confess to having a sneaky spoonful about an hour after I put it in, and the edges were freezing up nicely and it was delicious. This is the sort of ice-cream you have to exercise a lot of self control for - it's very rich but utterly delicious. I strongly recommend never risking eating this straight from the container, for you will struggle to put down the spoon!

So, quite possibly the easiest recipe ever - and definitely has ultimate lickability in terms of flavour - do you know of any recipes which beat this for delicious simplicity?

I haven't actually seen her on tv much, I quite often get annoyed with her ilk if I see much of them - Nigella rather annoys me on the telly, it's fair to say. ;-) But I do love Donna's cookbooks, and her tips on Masterchef the other day were great.

Amanda, glad you like it! I love Donna Hay - her recipe books are a combination of great recipes and cool tips for dressing things up. The simple essentials ones are pretty good (I love the chocolate one) - and I have several others, love them all!

Anon, not sure if chocolate syrup would work, I think this only works because of the high sugar density and thick consistency of the caramel - but there's nothing wrong with experimenting! Good luck. :-)

Hi Anon, that's the recipe I have. Personally even this proportion is at the high end of fat content for my tastes so I wouldn't want to up the cream quantity, but I'm sure the other recipes would still work so it's just a matter of taste. :-)

I like it! I am a massive brandy snap fan and that combo sounds amazing. Have you seen my brandy snap ice cream recipe? It takes a bit more to make the ice cream but it is brandysnapilicious - http://www.mrscake.co.nz/2010/10/brandy-snap-ice-cream.html

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All About Mrs Cake

Hi! I'm Rosa, a.k.a. Mrs Cake, and I live in Wellington, New Zealand. I love food in all its forms, my fabulous family, and a bit of good old-fashioned Kiwi DIY. This blog started around food but has evolved to include some other bits and pieces - I hope you'll join me for the journey! See more